A voltage regulator is an electronic element designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage level. A voltage regulator may be a simple “feed-forward” design or may include negative feedback control loops. Such devices can utilize electromechanical mechanisms or electronic components. Feedback voltage regulators operate by comparing the output voltage to some fixed reference voltage. A difference is amplified and used to control the regulation element in such a way as to reduce the voltage differential. This forms a negative feedback control loop, where increasing the open-loop gain tends to increase regulation accuracy but reduce stability.